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Colorado Flooding: After the Deluge

Following days of record-setting rainfall and historic flooding across Colorado's Front Range, skies have cleared, and the recovery has begun. The number of people still unaccounted for has dropped to about 200, as helicopter teams are fanning out across the foothills in the largest aerial rescue operation since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Colorado authorities coping with the aftermath are now preparing possible evacuations of prairie towns in danger of being swamped as the flood crest moves downstream. Tens of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed, a problem exacerbated by the fact that only about 1 percent of Colorado homeowners have flood insurance. The photos below show some of the events of the past few days, following up on Monday's Historic Flooding Across Colorado.

Visible results of flash floods that swamped natural gas and oil well pads and in some cases dislodged storage tanks in Weld County, Colorado, on September 17, 2013. Hundreds of natural gas and oil wells along with pipelines were shut down by the flooding, as state and federal inspectors gauge the damage and look for contamination from inundated oil fields.
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The sun sets over a flooded field near Crook, Colorado, on September 17, 2013. The emergency airlifts of flood victims waned Tuesday, leaving rescue crews to systematically search the nooks and crannies of the northern Colorado foothills and transportation officials to gauge what it will take to rebuild the wasted landscape.
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An area damaged by flooding in northern Colorado on September 14, 2013. Colorado and Wyoming National Guard units were activated to provide assistance to people affected by massive flooding along Colorado's Front Range.
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Chief Warrant Officer Troy Parmley, a pilot with the Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, Colorado Army National Guard, looks at floodwaters from recent rainfall while flying a UH-72 Lakota helicopter during relief and recovery operations near Fort Collins, Colorado, on September 18, 2013. Colorado Guard members have evacuated about 700 people by ground, with military aerial evacuations currently totaling 2,394.
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Robert Pandolfi of Longmont, Colorado uses a shovel to direct water in the basement of his boss' home as residents clean up in the wake of a week of heavy flooding on September 16, 2013 in Longmont, Colorado.
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A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter assigned to the Colorado Army National Guard lands to evacuate a resident stranded on a highway damaged by flooding in northern Colorado, on September 14, 2013.
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A rescue helicopter flies over Lyons, Colorado which was hard hit by flood waters, on September 17, 2013. Colorado authorities coping with the aftermath of last week's deadly downpours stepped up the search for victims left stranded in the foothills of the Rockies and evacuations of prairie towns in danger of being swamped as the flood crest moved downstream.
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Staff Sergeant Jose Pantoja, with the 2-4 GSAB 4th Infantry Division based in Ft. Carson, waves to people in Left Hand Canyon after they indicated their condition and that they didn't need help from a Black Hawk helicopter near Jamestown, Colorado, on September 17, 2013.
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U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jose Pantoja, a flight medic with Charlie Company, 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, carries Mike Daniels, an evacuee, up a hoist onto a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during a flood rescue and recovery operations in Boulder, Colorado, on September 16, 2013.
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A debris-covered hunting boot sits in front of a home in Longmont, Colorado, drying as residents clean up in in one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in the wake of a week of heavy flooding, on September 16, 2013.
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Chad Obrien comforts his four year old son Elijah, as he works to remove waterlogged and contaminated floors and walls from his flooded basement, which was wrecked in recent flooding, in Longmont, Colorado, on September 18, 2013.
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